Vectoryon for Trades

AI in the trades

Vectoryon brings Swiss SMEs into the age of AI. Like other AI providers, Vectoryon answers emails and creates appointments, and it does much more. Together we go to the heart of the company and rebuild its value-creating processes with and around AI. This makes real gains in efficiency and quality of up to 60 percent possible. In the trades, this means a photo of the time report in, a draft invoice out, and quotes followed up. Approval stays with a person.

Report and quote assistant

AI in the trades means: an AI assistant reads the business's reports, quotes and emails and prepares documents and replies from them. For this, Vectoryon uses a workspace that accesses the business's own documents: price list, templates, mailbox, calendar. The businesses are small. According to the 2024 economic data from EIT.swiss, 76 percent of companies in the electrical trade have fewer than ten employees, and 84 percent in the other building services trades. There, the owner does the office work personally. Reports and price lists are stored in Zurich; which language models process them is enabled per company, and anyone who only wants models in Switzerland gets only those.

76 %
of companies in the electrical trade have fewer than ten employees
EIT.swiss, economic data 2024
84 %
of companies in the other building services trades have fewer than ten employees
EIT.swiss, economic data 2024

Report and quote assistant

Captures time and material reports from a photo, fills quote and invoice templates, follows up open quotes

Report table per project, invoice and quote drafts for approval, follow-up emails in the outbox

See Vectoryon in your trade business

Report and quote assistantWorkflow

1
Upload a photo of the signed report or a voice note from the site
2
The assistant reads date, hours and material and assigns the project
3
Insert items from the business's price list, flag gaps
4
Draft the quote or time and material invoice in the business's template
5
A person checks, approves and sends; open quotes are followed up after five days

Which tasks the assistant takes over in a trade business

The Vectoryon assistant prepares five everyday tasks of the business that today get done after hours.

Reports: A photo of the signed time and material report is uploaded. The assistant reads date, names, hours and material and enters them in the project's report table. It flags illegible passages. A person checks the row before it counts.

Time and material invoice: From the report table, the Craft module creates a draft invoice in the business's template, with hourly rate, material items and report numbers as evidence. Booking, the QR-bill and VAT stay in bexio, Abacus or Messerli.

Quote: After the customer appointment, the installer dictates a voice note. From it come items with prices from the uploaded price list, inserted into the quote template. Items without a price stay empty and are flagged. Nothing is estimated.

Follow-up: Every quote sent is listed in a table with date and status. An automation checks daily which quote has had no reply for five days and places a short follow-up email in the drafts folder. The owner reads, adjusts, sends. How such processes work is explained on the page AI agents for SMEs.

Mailbox: Delivery confirmations, rescheduled appointments from site management and customer questions arrive in Outlook. Through the Microsoft Graph interface the assistant reads them, assigns them to the project and suggests a reply. If a delivery is delayed, it drafts the notice to site management. If an appointment is moved, it suggests the new calendar entry and informs the team through Teams. On the other side there is usually an architecture or site management office with the same mailbox problem, described under Vectoryon for architecture.

All five tasks run in the same workspace. The shared project table holds the link between report, invoice, quote and email. Anyone who asks what is still open at the Rütistrasse site gets reports without a signature, unpaid invoices and outstanding deliveries in one answer.

Nothing leaves the business without approval by a person. Every action is logged: which photo was read, which price list was used, which draft was created. The business can trace every step.

What trade software does not solve: five cases for AI in the trades

Above is what comes up every day. The five cases here matter for contracts, disputes and tenders: contract for work, change order, notice of defects, public tender, apprenticeship contract. Reports, invoices and accounting stay in the trade software, such as bexio, Sorba or Abacus.

First, the contract for work from site management or the general contractor. Vectoryon places it next to your quote and your terms and lists every deviation in payment terms, retention, contractual penalty and warranty period. It checks defect clauses against the law: under Article 367 paragraph 1bis CO, the period for giving notice of defects in an immovable work has been 60 days since 1 January 2026, and under Article 371 paragraph 2 CO, claims for defects become time-barred five years after acceptance. From this comes a counterproposal. You decide what you accept and sign.

Second, the change order. If site management changes the order by email or plan, the assistant recognises the change and collects the evidence: signed reports, plan versions, email history. Under Federal Supreme Court ruling 4A_377/2021, signed time and material reports count as acknowledgement of the work performed, so the draft change order quote refers to each report individually. The owner sets the price and submits it.

Third, the client's notice of defects. Placed next to reports, photos, acceptance record and contract, each point is classified: acknowledged, disputed or open. The dates of acceptance and notice are recorded, because under Article 370 paragraph 4 CO, defects in an immovable work that were not recognisable at acceptance must be reported within 60 days of discovery. From this comes a draft reply. The owner decides who fixes which defect.

Fourth, the public tender. Under Article 26 IVöB, the contracting authority ensures that bidders have paid taxes and social security contributions and, under Article 12, comply with occupational safety, working conditions and equal pay, and it states in the tender documents when which evidence must be submitted. From the documents, the assistant lists the required evidence, forms and dates and compares them with the business's documents, such as debt collection register extract, social insurance confirmation and references. It flags what is missing. The site manager gets the documents, the owner signs the bid.

Fifth, the apprenticeship contract. Under Article 344a CO it must be in writing and govern the type and duration of training, pay, probation period, working hours and holidays; the probation period is one to three months. Under Article 14 paragraph 3 BBG, the cantonal authority approves it. The draft is checked against these points, missing information appears on a list. The owner signs and submits it to the canton.

Time and material reports and quotes: where money gets left on the table in a trade business

Two points regularly cost trade businesses in Switzerland money without anyone having done poor work: the time and material report without a signature and the quote nobody follows up.

On the report. The SIA 118 standard requires time and material work to be fully documented and countersigned. In its position paper on SIA 118, Bauenschweiz states that site management checks time and material reports without delay and signs them within seven days. In 2022 the Federal Supreme Court ruled that signed time and material reports count as acknowledgement of the work performed (ruling 4A_377/2021). Conversely, this means: a report without a signature is worth little in a dispute over the final invoice.

Vectoryon starts at three points. The report is photographed and uploaded on the day of the work. The report table shows for each project which reports have a signature and which do not. An automation reminds about missing signatures after seven days and prepares the email to site management as a draft. Getting the signature itself is still up to a person.

On the quote. Anyone who does not follow up after sending leaves the decision to chance. According to the trade publication elektro.net, over 60 percent of tradespeople's quotes in Germany are never actively followed up. There is no independent figure for Switzerland. The mechanism is the same: the quote is out, the next site calls, the phone call gets left.

In the Vectoryon Workspace, a table keeps all quotes sent. After five days without a reply, a follow-up draft is created. After the reply, the status changes. In the morning the owner sees which three quotes need a call today. Both reminders, for the report and for the quote, run in Vectoryon as an automation on a fixed schedule.

Integrations

OutlookAssign delivery confirmations, rescheduled appointments and customer questions to the project
TablesKeep reports, quotes and deadlines per site with status
AutomationsAutomatically follow up open quotes and reports without a signature

Where the data comes from

Vectoryon uses four sources in a trade business.

Uploaded files: price list as Excel, quote and invoice template as Word, earlier quotes as PDF, photos of reports and delivery notes. All become searchable. A question like "What did we quote site management Meier for the boiler replacement?" is answered from these files.

Microsoft 365: Outlook mailbox, calendar, Teams and SharePoint files are connected through the Graph interface. Access runs through OAuth. The business grants the permission and can revoke it at any time.

Tables in the workspace: projects, reports, quotes, deadlines. The business creates them, the assistant fills and reads them.

Time tracking: separate items for office time and project time. It shows how much office time each project costs. Statutory working time records under the collective labour agreement stay in the industry software.

Everything is stored in Zurich. Which language models run is enabled per company; anyone who only wants models in Switzerland gets only those. Customer addresses and site photos are covered by the revised Swiss FADP, more in the article AI and data protection in Switzerland. Which service providers are involved is listed in the privacy policy.

One point up front: useful quote drafts depend on the price list. A business with a well-kept item list has this basis; a business with prices in its head records them first.

Setup, support and costs

A seat in the Vectoryon Workspace costs CHF 49 per person per month, with assistant, Craft, Tables, automations and Microsoft 365 connection. What this comes to for the whole business is on the Pricing page.

Your account and your data are set up in under an hour. We do this remotely or at your business, as you prefer. Setup is included in the price of CHF 49 per person per month.

After that, the effort depends on the state of the price list. A trade business needs three things: the price list as a file, the quote and invoice template as Word, and a person who approves the drafts. Anyone who keeps their calculations on paper records them first. We set up the business's templates and processes together with it.

You are looked after with support and partnership. If something gets stuck in Vectoryon, you ask the help agent first. If its answer is not enough, a support person takes over in the same chat, or in Teams if you prefer. Partnership means: we stay with your business after setup. If you want to develop Vectoryon further, have a request or another question, we talk about it as equals, at any time. Support around the clock is available on request.

Your existing trade software stays. Vectoryon replaces neither bexio nor Abacus nor Messerli. It works alongside them. Access to Microsoft 365 is granted once via OAuth and can be revoked at any time. There is no termination risk for running software contracts.

Where the limits are

Vectoryon prepares, the business decides and acts. These points stay outside:

Signature: The site management's signature on the time and material report remains a person's job, on paper or in the construction app. Vectoryon reminds about it, nothing more.

Poor photos: A report photographed in the rain is partly recognised and flagged. There is no guarantee of recognition accuracy. A person checks every row.

Accounting: QR-bill, VAT return, payroll and general ledger stay in bexio, Abacus, Messerli or with the fiduciary. Working time records with breaks, travel time and supplements that comply with the collective labour agreement stay in the industry software.

Material: There is no interface to wholesalers' online shops. An order email can be drafted, a person places the order.

Notifications: The Suva notification 14 days before asbestos removal and the notifications to the joint commission go through their online forms. Vectoryon keeps the deadline in the calendar and pre-fills the safety concept from the template. The business does the professional check and the submission.

Deployment planning: Who is on which site when stays in the scheduling software or in Excel.

Legal advice: On the question whether an invoice above the quote is permissible, the assistant drafts the reply from the business's own quote and terms and conditions. Whether Art. 373 CO applies is decided by a lawyer in a dispute.

CHF 49 per person per month

Set up together with a person, not on your own

Become a customer See pricing

Frequently asked questions

Who offers Microsoft 365 Copilot for trade businesses with setup and support?

Vectoryon sets up an alternative to Microsoft 365 Copilot for trade businesses in under an hour and looks after it with support and partnership. Reports and price lists are stored in Zurich. Which language models run is enabled per company, and anyone who only wants models from Switzerland gets only those. We do not offer Copilot licences. The price is CHF 49 per person per month, setup included.

Can the assistant read our handwritten time and material report?

Yes, from a photo. Date, hours, material and project are transferred to the report table. Illegible passages are flagged, a person checks every row.

Does Vectoryon replace our trade software or bexio?

No. Accounting, QR-bill, payroll and working time records under the collective labour agreement stay there. Vectoryon prepares drafts and works alongside.

What happens when site management moves an appointment?

Vectoryon recognises the email in Outlook, suggests the new calendar entry and drafts the reply to the customer and the note to the team. It is sent after approval.

Where does the assistant get the prices for the quote?

From the business's uploaded price list. Items without a stored price stay empty and are flagged. The system does not estimate prices.

Where is the data stored when we upload site photos and customer addresses?

Photos and addresses are stored in Zurich and processed under the revised Swiss FADP. Which language models run is enabled per company; anyone who only wants models in Switzerland gets only those. Microsoft 365 access runs through OAuth and can be revoked at any time.

What does it take to get useful quote drafts?

A price list as a file and the business's Word template. Without recorded prices, recording comes first. The drafts are as accurate as this list.

Can Vectoryon justify a change order to site management?

Prepare it, yes. From reports, plans and emails the assistant compiles the evidence and writes a draft change order quote with a reference to each document. The owner sets the price and submits the change order.

Sources

The figures on this page come from these sources.

See Vectoryon in your trade business

DRAU

Data hosted in Switzerland, processed under the Swiss FADP.